5 Reasons to Kick Off the Year with Team Building

How can you inspire and invigorate your employees to have a fulfilling and successful 2019?

Team building is renowned for boosting morale and energising teams, making your people more loyal and productive when they return to the workplace. The New Year is the perfect time to plan a team building away day – and here’s why:

1. Start the Year as you Mean to Go On

If you’ve been wanting to change or improve any aspect of your team’s dynamics, the start of a new year is the ideal time to do it. It’s a time when people are enjoying a fresh start and are motivated to make new resolutions, so capture this momentum with a team building day early in the year. In particular, this could be a great time to make team-wide resolutions with a refreshed perspective after the Christmas break. If there are certain aspects you’d like to work on in the team, develop a team building day around a theme. For example, if you want to improve communication, design an event to address this. It could include a blindfolded obstacle course, where individuals have to communicate effectively to help their colleagues.

2. Capture New Ideas

Creativity peaks when your people are feeling rested and relaxed. If everyone has enjoyed a little time off over Christmas, they’re more likely to be in the mindset to come up with ideas about the company and workplace when they return. Organising a team building day means this moment of inspiration isn’t lost. Incorporate team building with a meeting/planning day, or why not create a multi-day programme. It’s the perfect chance to discuss company plans during the year ahead, have brainstorming sessions and re-connect as a team.

3. Re-Engage after Christmas

When you’re used to seeing colleagues every day in the office, it can take a little bit of time to reconnect with people after some time out for the Christmas holidays. Dedicating some time for colleagues to catch up again shows you care about them as people. Organising a team building day to do this has the added bonus of re-establishing working relationships quicker, helping staff work more cohesively when they’re back in the office.

4. Overcome Conflict

The end of the year can leave people feeling stressed, worn out and run down in the race to get everything done before the office winds down for the holiday. As a result, it can be a time of year when conflict arises or working relationships suffer. Starting the year with a positive team building experience is a great way of leaving the previous year behind. Activities such as treasure hunts can be brilliant for moving forward, as colleagues who haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye can work in pairs to reach a shared goal.

5. Build Trust and Resilience

The biggest strength of a business is its people and the working relationships they share go a long way towards a harmonious and productive working environment. Being able to trust and rely on colleagues is a key element of excellent working relationships, and team building days are fantastic for building trust within teams. Simple exercises that are great for building trust include ‘back to back drawing’ – where one colleague has to describe a difficult shape for the other one to draw, or ‘turn over a new leaf’ – where a team has to stand on a small plastic sheet and turn it over without breaking contact with it. Ultimately, trust-filled teams are more resilient and make businesses more robust.

Start the New Year on the right foot with colleagues by organising a team building day, and put your business in a strong position to tackle the year ahead.